Spec: The History of Spec World
Examples of Extinct Species in the Spec World: * Sauropodimimus giganticus (Late Oligocene) (Chattian) Asian lambeosaurid that attained enormous sizes. One of the last of the lambeosaurs with the extinction of Sauropodimimus and it's kin, Asia was devoid of hadrosaurs until repopulated by stock from North America during the Early Pliocene. However, recent expeditions back to spec support the existance of lambeosaurinae like creatures living in the Southern Hemisphere. * Saltotyrannus nanus: ''(Early Eocene) This tiny, metre long tyrannosaur, also from the Messel Shales is considered by many to be the first true errosaurid (or at least a "proerrosaurid"). The superlative preservation of the Messel shows that this animal possessed the full body-covering of feathers present in its modern cousins. * ''Lycovenator paraxenos ''(Early Eocene): A plesiomorphic dromaeosaur from the Messel Shales putative ancestor for the entire Tertiary Holarctic drak radiation. * ''Monoceratops acutus ''(Late Plestociene): One of many spectacular large North American cenoceratopsian, displaying a perfect case of convergent evolution due to its appearance of a long extinct centrosaur, that died out in the Late Pleistocene, due to climate change and ironically, the return of several species of a few possible species of ceratopsians to North America. This issue is still under debate. * ''Nanodon ''marshalensis (Pliocene):'' One of the last of the South American neoabelisaurids from the Pliocene. Became extinct shortly after the invasion of northern predators across the Central American isthmus. As of now, only one species of Abelisaur remains in South America, the Patagonian Dragon. * Arcotitan poseidonorum: ''(Oligocene) (Chattian) Neotropical saltasaurid. Amongst the largest and the last of the South American titanosaurs, growing over a mind-boggling 200 feet long.The only sauropod left in that area is the Centeotl. * ''Titanotarsus steveirwini: (Eocene) (Lutetian-Priabonian) Australian/Antarctic titanosaur. Amongst the last sauropods found in Australia and Antarctica. The reason it went extinct was due to climate change and competition from other herbivores. The only species of Titanosaur left in the area are the Navigatosaurus ''sp. * ''Pikodon maximus: ''(Miocene) One of the last of the Australian torvodonts and one of the largest terrestrial predators even discovered, at 50 feet in length. * ''Massosuchus europensis: ''(Late Eocene) A European spinosaur with a perculiar arm/leg lenghth ratio that suggests a quadripedal stance. * * * A QUICK INTRODUCTION TO SPECPALEONTOLOGY The history of Spec as a timeline distinct from that of Arel begins roughly 65 million years ago. On Arel, this point in time corresponds with the end of the Mesozoic Era and the dawn of the Cenozoic - the so called Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary, although many workers now prefer to divide the Tertiary into the Paleogene(Paleocene-Oligocene) and Neogene(everything else). Specworld fossils dating from before this boundary most often belong to organisms described in our native timeline’s fossil record, indeed some famous pre-Cenozoic Arel fossil sites such as the Dinosaur National Monument and the Burgess Shales have identical Specworld counterparts that have produced matching specimens. A few Mesozoic Spec fossils (most notably ''Mirabilotheridium , a monotreme from Cretaceous South America and Lepelara, an early angiosperm) represent new taxa. All these novel finds fit comfortably within the accepted theories of our home-Earth’s Mesozoic history. In all likelihood, these taxa simply represent fossils of creatures that existed on Arel but have yet to be found. Above K-T boundary however, Spec's fossil record diverges radically from the natural history of our home timeline. The most obvious feature is the fact that the dinosaurs did not go extinct along with a host of other organisms that vanished at the K-T boundary on Arel. Secondly, a great variety of animals that appeared in the early Cenozoic of Arel (particularly large mammals) are missing - without a big K-T extinction event to clear out the ecological playing-field these forms never had the opportunity to evolve on Spec. * * "K-T" STRATIGRAPHY Most Spec-researchers continue to use a stratigraphic system based on the one developed and calibrated on Arel. This is feasible as the broad geological and climatic histories of our two worlds, with the exception of the K-T boundary, appear to be identical. For example, the timing of the appearance and disappearance of the index fossils (various marine planktonic forms) that help to demarcate the different stages of the Cenozoic show a strong correspondance between the two timelines. (Note: the actual makeup of the Cenozoic planktonic floras of Spec and Arel are very different, however the arrival and extinction of stratigraphically useful taxa happens at about the same time). However, there remains one glaring geological difference that separates Spec from Arel - 65 million year old deposits on Spec show no sign of a large impact event or the subsequent extinctions caused by it. In fact, discounting the long-term decline of certain lineages and a drop in marine tropical diversity, there appear to be no abrupt changes in the global biota between about 71 million to 63 million years ago. This roughly corresponds on Arel stratigraphic charts with the start of the Maastrichtian Age (the final stage of the Late Cretaceous Epoch) and the end of the Danian Age (the first stage of the Paleocene Epoch). Especially noticeable is the continued formation of chalk deposits during this time whereas on Arel, all production suddenly ceases due to the extinction of radiolarians (chalk-producing planktonic organisms). Just as striking is the complete absense of the famous band of iridium-rich deposits, the ominous global signature of the K-T impact. As a result, some researchers have proposed a number of amendments to stratigraphic table of Specworld based on striking non-conformities in the Specworld fossil record when compared with that of Arel. # The end of the Cretaceous Period (and thus the Mesozoic Era as well) on Spec is pulled forwards from c.65 million years ago to c.55 million years ago, corresponding to the end of the Paleocene Epoch on Arel. The retention of a distinct Paleocene unit as the first part of the Cenozoic should be abolished. # The period of time on Specworld corresponding to the Danian Age of the Paleocene on Arel is now incorporated into the Maastrichtian Age of the Cretaceous. Thus the Maastrichtian, which extends from 72-65 million years ago on Arel, extends from 72-62 million years ago on Spec. # The other subdivision of the Arel’s Paleocene, the Selandian (extending from 62-55 million years ago) is retained as a distinct unit owing to changes in planktonic assemblages. It is however, considered to be the final age of the Cretaceous Period rather than as part of the Paleogene Period. FROM 65,000,000 YEARS AGO TO THE PRESENT DAY The following account is based on our current understanding of the history of Specworld from the what would have been the end of the Cretaceous on Arel up to the present day. The reader should note that many facets of Spec's fascinating past are still unravelling and that some details are still poorly understood and the subject of intense scientific debate (as well as some rather crude discourses in certain internet forums). LATEST MAASTRICHTIAN - EARLY PALEOCENE (65,000,000 - 62,000,000 b.p.) Across the globe, the Earth has become a grand stage for spectacular tectonic activity. Great mountain ranges are being pushed upwards accompanied by volcanic activity the likes of which have never been seen before in the Mesozoic. The grandest spectacle takes place on the Gondwanan fragment of India as it dashes itself against the Asian plate. Erupting in their full glory are the volcanoes that will create the Deccan Traps, leaving an area of 1.5 million square kilometers buried under 2 kilometers of flow basalt. This is not the only upheaval facing the world. Across the globe the oceans have been in retreat for the past few million years, exposing vast tracts of shallow seafloor. Great Britain rises from its watery prison. The two halves of North America are reunited as the Interior Seaway vanishes. The extent of the continental landmasses is dramatically enlarged. Soon it is possible to walk around the entire Northern Hemisphere without getting one's feet wet. All this activity has put life on Earth under intense stress. Great clouds of volcanic ash screen the sunlight with dire consequences for many phototrophic organisms. Whole continental shelf communities are left high and dry. Once lush island paradises are suddenly faced with continental climates that bring extremes of temperature and erratic rainfall, now often laced with sulphuric acid. In the oceans, global oceanic cooling and the draining of inland seas leads to a near total annihilation of the world's tropical reef ecosystems. Many once diverse families are eliminated or reduced to a few cosmopolitan species. Entire food chains collapse, from tiny plankton to the apex predators. The mosasaurs and ammonoids somehow manage to pull through. The vast majority of the graceful elasmosaurs and pliosaurs are not so fortunate. On the seafloor, once vast beds of giant inoceramid clams dwindle then vanish whilst their cousins, the rudists, are reduced to a handful of coolwater species. Although the rudists as a group will survive up until the present day, their time as the dominant reef-builders is over. Life on land is also under siege. Death in different parts of the world might come from earthquakes, volcanoes, chemical contamination, fluctuating temperatures or increasing aridity. Forests wither. Embryoes die within the egg. And if that wasn't enough, the falling sea-levels unite previously isolated landmasses, allowing populations of dinosaurs to travel unhindered between the continents. Soon their wanderings bring the added burdens of introduced diseases and new competitors. Most non-avian dinosaur lineages suffer a marked drop in diversity. Across the globe, the number of dinosaur species in any given area can usually be counted on one hand. In all, an estimated 15-20% of the earth's biodiversity is lost during this time. As their struggle for survival becomes an ever-increasing nightmare, few of the animals notice the new star that has appeared in the heavens. As the weeks progress it gradually grows in size, trailing its gossamer train in its wake. Bigger and brighter it becomes until it becomes clearly visible in the daylight where the volcanic clouds do not mask the view. Then on one night the wanderer seems to lose it's resolve and grows almost imperceptibly dimmer. As the nights pass it's waning continues, smaller and smaller, until it is lost amongst the myriad of stars. The world has arrived at a crossroads and taken one path at the expense of another. For the dinosaurs, the grim struggle to live continues, oblivious to the even grimmer fate that has just been averted. Gigantala cranitus Recovered from late Paleocene rocks in western Canada, the fragmented cranium of Gigantala cranitus ''represents the youngest traditional pterosaur evidence yet known. A medium-sized azdarachid, ''Gigantala is in most respects similar to such Cretaceous pterosaurs as Zhejiangopterus ''and ''Quetzalcoatlus, although (with an estimated wingspan of 4.5m) not so large. The few other Paleocene pterosaur remnants scattered throughout the northern hemisphere can probably all be attributed the this genus, and as there have yet to be any substantiated pterosaur fossils found from post-Paleocene strata, Gigantala ''was very likely the last of its kind. However, flightless pterosaurs still exist on the island continent of Australia and nearby areas. Along with that, the fossil record shows evidence of some pterosaurs persisting beyond the Maastrichtian and into the present day. How this was ignored is still anyone's personal guess. Gone forever are the great shadows cast by traditional flying pterosaurs soaring high overhead. The pioneers of vertebrate aviation have surrendered the skies to the birds and recently evolved mammalian bats. Alas, neither of these groups will ever produce a flier that comes even close to rivaling the sheer majesty of the largest pterosaurs... Or so we thought. Upon recent expeditions back to the world Spec, it was revealed that the only surviving pterosaurs on Spec are a clade of flightless predators, which thrive in Australia and neighboring areas. Despite flightless pterosaurs, being found very a decent amount of pterosaurs who retain the ability of flight still remain in Spec. ''Parasaurolophus palaeocaenicus Disocvered back in 2006 by rookie Specbiologist and artist, Rafael Silva do Nascimento, Parasaurolophus palaeocaenicus is ''currently the youngest species Parasaurolophus from the fossil record in Spec. This was one of the last known lambeosaurines to that inhabited North America during the end of Cretaceous and thrived in Western North America; going extinct sometime between the middle or late Paleocene. Another feature about this species is the longer crest on its head, growing larger than ''Parasaurolophus tubicen. LATE PALEOCENE (c.63,000,000 - 57,000,000 b.p.) Depleted ecosystems around the world are regaining their lost biodiversity as conditions improve. Surviving pockets of forest spread outwards across the land, their growth facilitated by the dearth of herbivores. The seas once again teem with plankton allowing marine food chains to reestablish themselves. Insects fill the skies, quickly followed by the birds and early bats. Mammals and lizards scurry in the undergrowth. Maybe fewer than 100 non-avian dinosaur species worldwide made it through the K-T boundary in sufficient numbers to keep their kind in existence. A roll call of the Northern Hemisphere finds many faces missing, Gone forever are the speedy ornithomimosaurs , the bizarre alvarezsaurs (which still survive in the south) and all but a handful of the horned ceratopsians, both centrosaurs and chasmosaurs. All the northern sauropod species are extinct. Strangely, the bone-headed pachycephalosaurs seem to survive the K-T intact only to vanish before the end of the Paleocene. Biodiversity remains globally poor, most species are generalists with very large distributions. The runaway volcanism and the horrid black clouds of ash and acid have subsided. However, low sea-levels maintain extensive land-bridges between most continents, keeping regional endemism to a minimum (Europe and North American share more than two thirds of their tetrapod genera at this time) but also giving life the chance to repopulate the most remote of depleted areas. At this time Africa plus most of the Northern Hemisphere landmasses seem to form one broad biogeographical region. The dominant large plant eaters are hadrosauroid ornithopods, although only three genera are commonly represented a hadrosaurine, a lambeosaurine and, restricted to Africa and Europe, a small basal hadrosaur (Anserodromeus antiquus). Both the giant ceratopsids and sauropods are represented by one genus each, the former found throughout the region, the latter largely restricted to Africa and Europe. Large theropods include at least one tyrannosaur and a moderate-sized abelisaurid. The status of the smaller dinosaurs at this time is unclear - but the presence of hypsilophodonts, leptoceratopsians, small ankylosaurs and maniraptorans is inferred. The situation in Greater Gondwana (South America, Antarctica and Australia) is patchily understood. The sauropods apparently fared much better in this part of the world with at least 3 genera surviving. Large ornithopods are rare but at least two smaller-bodied families, ancestors of the modern Neodryosauria and Antarctornithopoda, are widespread. The alvarezsaurids are also alive while the ankylosaurs are very rare and scattered. The top predators appear to be giant maniraptoran protobirds although the more primitive abelisaurids are also in force. As the Paleocene draws to a close, the dinosaurs which made it through the K-T extinction event are well on the road to recovery and diversification. Varying conditions across the globe prod widely distributed species to form clines, then distinct races before ultimately speciating into completely new forms. Their empire may have recently been through hard times but the great beasts have survived and continue to rule the Earth. The Age of the Dinosaurs goes on... Baropecudis cornuforns '' One of the most perplexing puzzles of Specworld's fossil record concerns the disappearance of the pachycephalosaurs. These thick-skulled ornithischians, commonly referred to as "boneheads" or "pachys", first appear in the Barremian of Europe and for the rest of the Cretaceous form a minor component of most terrestrial fossil assemblages in Asia and North America. On Spec, despite having been spared the sudden annihilation of their Arel counterparts at the K-T, the boneheads do not last very far into the Cenozoic. ''Baropecudis, informally known as the "Sz", is one of several fascinating fossil forms discovered by Clayton "Reedstilt" Bell's expeditions to Central Asia.This 2 metre long pachycephalosaur, known from several complete skeletons, is notable for the long horn found on some adult skulls. No other bonehead is known to have possessed such a horn although the rest of the anatomy suggests that the Sz (Malaysian for "unicorn") is a derived homalocephalid. Surprisingly, it seems that only the adult FEMALES possessed this horn, a conclusion based on skeletal morphology and the presence of shell fragments in the abdominal cavity of three horned individuals. Why the females should have such an lethal-looking horn is unclear. Perhaps the females were responsible for anti-predator defence whilst the males fought amongst each other for mating rights with their conventional pachy-heads. Based on the curvature of the eggshell fragments, it appears that the mother Baropecudis laid only one or two enormous eggs akin to that of an Arel kiwi. The pelvic region of the females was laterally expanded to allowthe passing of such a monstrous object which in life may have been about 25cm at it's longest and 15 cm at its widest. Importantly, the deposits from which the fossils were excavated are believed to be of either Late Paleocene or Early Eocene in age. If so, this makes it the youngest known pachycephalosaur on Spec. Elsewhere, the boneheads vanish from the fossil record midway through the Paleocene for no apparent reason, a fact made more confusing by the relative abundance of pachycephalosaur fossils in Early Paleocene sites throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Some Late Maastrichtian deposits (Like the Sandy Site of Arel's South Dakota) would seem to suggest that the pachys were doing quite well despite everything going on around them at the end of the Cretaceous. Early in the Paleocene, boneheads are relatively common throughout the Northern Hemisphere (represented by at least four genera worldwide) and are often the only non-avian dinosaurs represented in some fossil assemblages. Then, as the Paleocene progressed, something went very wrong. While other small ornithischians began to diversify, the boneheads suddenly vanished, with only Baropecudis surviving till the end of the epoch. Just what could have happened to bring about the demise of the boneheads in such a short space of time has become a hotly debated topic. The fact that they failed to radiate despite a noticeable lack of competition might suggest that the Paleocene pachycephalosaurs were somehow specialised in ways unknown to us. Their fall would seem to coincide with the diversification of other groups like the protoceratopsians which might have outcompeted them. Or perhaps their breeding habits, assuming that the other pachys laid small clutches like the Sz, left them vulnerable to nest predation. It has even been speculated that their brief success was directly tied in with the conditions of the Late Maastrichtian and earliest Paleocene which so many other species found to be detrimental. When the "bad times" ended they found themselves unable to adapt to the "good times". The fact of the matter is that we simply do not know what happened to Spec's boneheads. EARLY TO LATE EOCENE (c.57,000,000 - 40,000,000 b.p.) It is a time of plenty. The continents are altering their outlines and positions as the seafloors spread rapidly. The seas have advanced since the Paleocene, severing land-bridges and facilitating isolation and regional endemism. Global temperatures are warm, nurturing lush tropical floras as far north as Britain. In the seas, warm climate and the return of shallow inland seas put evolution into overdrive. Most modern fish families are now present while the mosasaurs undergo a major diversification event, the archetypal serpentine body shifting into everything from small eel-like river-dwellers to delphinoid pelagic forms. On land, one could be forgiven for thinking that they were back in the Cretaceous. In North America, the flat-headed hadrosaurine duckbills had branched into a number unique of endemic lineages. But these animals lived in the shadow of the immense Brontoceratops robustus, the most massive ceratopsian to have ever existed. Stalking the herds were the tyrannosaurs which have obviously hit upon a winning formula, being practically unchanged since the Cretaceous. For the most part the chasmosaurs ruled to roost while nearly driving the centrosaur cousins into the point of oblivion. Across the sea in Eurasia, differences between Old and New World fauna were becoming more pronounced after a long period of uniformity. Hadrosaurines and giant ceratopsids are also present, but were much less common. Here the dominant herbivores were the hollow-crested lambeosaurs followed by the smaller cousins of the ceratopsids, the hog-like leptoceratopsids. The big predators were also tyrannosaurs, but they tended to be smaller and a lot more bizarre-looking than their American cousins. Evidence of other coelurosaurs is sporadic, but it is clear that this epoch was a time of diversification for both the oviraptorosaurs and the deinonychosaurs, now the only small predators left in the Northern Hemisphere. Troodontids were more common in the Southern Hemisphere. Mammals were present as small burrowing and climbing insectivores. In Europe and North Africa, there was surprise reappearance of the piscivorous spinosaurs after an absence in the fossil record for 40 million years. Where they had been for all that time is one of Specworld's many unsolved mysteries. In the HE, the spinosaurs went extinct due to climate change and changes in the environment. Africa, now sliced in half by inland seas, is once again isolated and its dinosaurs are now heading off in their own evolutionary direction. Once again, the land is dominated by herds of giant duckbills, mostly the descendents of Paleocene-Asian immigrants but members of a more primitive local clade are also on the march. Sauropods also flourish as do a host of smaller, poorly understood herbivores. Africa has acquired some Asian tyrannosaurs but they face competition from a much older theropod clan, the neoceratosaurian abelisaurs. On the other side of the world, this was the final hour for the united Greater Gondwanan dinosaur-fauna, just before the terminal breakup. The last land-connection to South American has only just been severed to Antarctica, while Australia is hanging on by a thread. The sauropods reign supreme; herds of giant long-necked earthshakers are everywhere. Aside from a few duckbills, descendents of a Paleocene interchange with North America, the ornithischians are less conspicuous, but they are still diverse and abundant in the smaller herbivore guilds. Two endemic ornithopod radiations are now recognizable, the medium-sized browsing neodryosaurs and the diminutive omnivorous antarctornithopods . As in Africa, the abelisaurids are on the prowl, but here they play second fiddle to the notoraptors, a group of enigmatic giant sickle-clawed maniraptorans. The status of the dinosaur fauna of India at this time and during the folling period of extinction is presently unknown. ''Balaenanguis primitivus'' Recently-discovered of Balaenanguis, the most primitive known lizardwhale, from early Eocene sediments in Europe, sheds much light onto saurocete evolution, especially the lineage of the eninigmatic Nile mosasaur, genus Apep. Eohadrus excelsior Unearthed in from 50-million-year-old Eocene deposits of Wyoming, 10-meter-long Eohadrus excelsior is one of the best-preserved specimens of hadrosaurid diversity during the Cenozoic. The skull morphology of this species is quite similar to that of its Cretaceous ancestors such as Kritosaurus and Bactrosaurus, with a blunt, toothless beak and layers of small, diamond- shaped teeth in the back of its mouth. The limbs of Eohadrus, however, are quite distinct from those of its ancestors, the forelimbs being roughly the same length as the hindlimbs. Eohadrus, then, was a fully quadrupedal galloper, like modern hadrosaurids, and unlike the still partially bipedal basal hadrosaurids of the Mesozoic. Eohadrus's neck was long and flexible, and its tail, no longer necessary for balance, but still the anchor for the muscles of the legs, was deep and blunt. Unlike its plains-dwelling descendants, Eohadrus was most likely a forest-living animal, browsing from the ground and from low-growing trees. Megacaudia nameni Megacaudia nameni was an early member of megacaudinae living in the late Eocene North America. These fleet-footed hadrosaurids already had many distinctive characters of the later megacaudines, though in many respects they were more primitive than some other species uncovered from the same period. Brontoceratops robustus Brontoceratops robustus, the Eocene Chasmosaurine, was the largest marginocephalian ever. While its length (12 meters) has been surpassed by some Eurasian ceratopsians, its weight (10 tonnes) is unrivaled. These bulky creatures swaggered across the American interior in thunderous herds. Males had a ridge over their shoulders that may have supported a fatty hump that cushioned their frills, reducing the stress applied to them when two huge bulls collided. Gigantops dominus The Eocene was the last, yet most glorious chapter in the history of chasmosaurines, leaving only one surviving group that is still around to this very day. While North America was ruled by the massive Brontoceratops, Eurasia was a home to another ceratopsian giant. The chasmosaurine ancestors of Gigantops had crossed the land bridge between Asia and North America during the early Eocene and at tthe time ruled all the northern continents. Gigantops was quite likely the largest of the Eurasian chasmosaurines with a head as long as that of Torosaurus, even though the neck frill of Gigantops was proportionally shorter. Paraxenoceratops oplos Discovered in 2004 by famed Specfounder Tiina Aumala in Asia, this bizarre species of ceratopsian was first believed to be in the same family of chasmosaurines as Brontoceratops robustus. However, more indepth analysis revealed that this was a ceratopsian of a vastly different family which apart of the clade, Paraxenoceratopsia. Like most species of the ceratopsidae, minus the exception of a few species of centrosaurinae, it went extinct during the Eocene-Oligocene extinction event. It would appear that Paraxenoceratops oplos was one of the last species of ceratopsiadae thrive on planet Earth before it went extinct. It should be noted that this was originally named "Xenoceratops oplos", but this was changed in order to not confuse it with the bizarre centrosaurinae which was discovered back in 2011. Eobrachioceratops antiquus The Eocene Eobrachioceratops antiquus is the most basal brachioceratopsian yet known. Though this 3-m-long animal wasn't much different from the other protoceratopsian forms of that time, its forelimbs were already noticeably longer than the average. Spinotitan grandis '' Looks can be deceiving and in the case of ''Spinotitan grandis, it applies perfectly. When it was first discovered, it was once believed to be a species of a species of late surviving species of spinosaur; understandably due to the massive set of spines that ran down the back of its head all the way down to near end of its tail. However, later expeditions revealed that this was actually a species of medium sized titanosaur. Not only was this a maginifcent case of convergent evolution, resembling the high-spined sauropod Amargasaurus, but also case of mistaken identity on behalf. After all, science allows us to make mistakes in research and eventually correct them. Piscisraptor nauticus Piscisraptor nauticus was a medium sized spinosaur from Northern Africa. Fish bones found near its stomach cavity suggest it was a piscivore like its ancient cousins. It is believed that Piscisraptor was driven to extinction by the faster and more powerful abelisauroids. Carnosuchus tarbos '' ''Carnosuchus tarbos, colloquially known as The Big One, was last of the Afrosuchine spinosaurs and the last spinosaur overall. Adapted for hunting other dinosaurs rather than fish, it possesses a larger, stronger skull and raised neural spines much like the long extinct Acrocanthosaurus. It went extinct when the smaller priscataurs out competed it for food. Phobotyrannus robustus Known as "Carno" by one of our artists, Phobotyrannus robustus ''was a large, powerfully built ceratotyrannid, an abberant branch of Tyrannosauroidea that appeared some time in the early Eocene and then went extinct in the Miocene. ''Orgetorix ozymandias A late Eocene ceratotyrannid from Europe. Known from a partial skull and limb material. Estimated to have been close to 15 m in length. Arbroraptor mongoliensis Found in the Eocene deposites of Mongolia, Arbroraptor mongoliensis ''is the earliest known undisputed arbronychosaurid. Remains of this species have been found across central Asia, and ''A. mongoliensis ''has shed a great light upon arbronychosaurid evolution. Apparently, by the Eocene, arbronychosaurids were already well established as climbers. ''A. mongoliensis sported fully reversed hallux claws on its feet as well as thumbs that opposed the other two fingers in its hands. The hyperextendable inner toes, a distinguishing feature of the deinonychosaur clade (of which arbronychosauridae is a part) were reversed, but had yet to come into full opposition with the two front toes of the foot. It is believed, therefor, that A. mongoliensis was not as surefooted in the trees as its descendents. Palaeocarpo primitivus Palaeocarpo primitivus is one of the best known primitive pithecaviforms, dating back to late Eocene. These crow-sized flightless birds have been found in all the northern continents, and probably mainly lived on fruits and nuts. Despite being named after the crestless carpos, several Palaeocarpo species had crests on their head. Being a basal pithecavian, it was nevertheless quite closely related to the forms from which the modern carpos descend. Patriopokemus mordax Patriopokemus mordax is considered to be the common ancestor of all Pokemusidae, even Parapokemus. This Eocene proto-primate was only 25 cm long and was probably an omnivore or insectivore. Depicted here are is the most complete Patriopokemus specimen, which is missing only a few bones besides the ill-preserved ribcage. EXTINCTIONS AT THE EOCENE-OLIGOCENE TRANSITION (c.40,000,000 - 31,000,000 b.p.) During the closing phase of the Eocene Epoch (the Priabonian) and the opening phase of the Oligocene (the Rupelian), dinosaur communities worldwide were once again plunged into crisis. Across the globe, countless species were facing extinction, both on the land and in the oceans. The direction of evolution on the Specworld was to be forever altered. The extinctions of Eocene-Oligocene transition did not take place as a single discrete event, but rather as a series of extinction pulses. The first took place close to the start of the Priabonian about 40 million years ago with three or four additional pulses taking place throughout the Eocene-Oligocene transition, the last one occurring 31 million years ago towards the end of the Rupelian. A similar phenomenon occurs in Arel's fossil record and the progression of events in both timelines show strong similarities with regards to the marine fossil record. In the oceans during the extinction pulses, those groups most seriously affected were generally tropical and inshore forms. Many foraminiferans disappear, and those that survive show a heightened amount of oxygen 18 in their tests (a phenomenon associated with a lowering in temperature). Tropical calcareous nanoplankton are decimated whilst high-latitude floras of these organisms appear at the equator. The evidence points to both a cooling of the world's oceans as well as a severe drop in global sea-levels during the final pulse of extinctions in the Oligocene. Such conditions at sea would in turn have a direct consequence for life on land. Although there is some evidence of extraterrestrial impacts during this time, it seems likely that this climatic deterioration and fluctuation was tied in with final breakup of the ancient Gondwana. Towards the end of the Eocene, Australia rifted away from its last connections with Antarctica. Cold water flowed into the widening gap, deflecting the warm currents that had previously kept the south polar climates mild. For the first time since the Paleozoic, a permanent ice cap began to form at the South Pole. With the formation of the psychrosphere, a great chilling engine was created in the southern oceans. Warm water was trapped in the south where it was cooled and forced to descend into the ocean depths before spreading back towards the equator. Each time the cool temperatures were sent towards the lower latitudes via wind, oceanic currents or upwellings, it triggered off a wave of extinctions. In the longer term, this marked the start of a profound shift in the Earth's climatic history would ultimately lead to the ice ages of the Pleisto LATEST EOCENE TO LATE OLIGOCENE (c. 40,000,000 - 24,000,000 b.p.) The exact timing of many of the terrestrial extinctions is unclear. Most dinosaurs seemed relatively unaffected by the first extinction pulse at the start of the Priabonian, but took losses close to the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. The final pulse, accompanied by the dramatic dip in sea-levels, seems to have been the final nail in the coffin for many already struggling taxa. After millions of years of climatic seesawing, some semblance of stability had at last come to the world. The fragments of Gondwana were now fully separated. Australia and India crawled northwards, while Antarctica, now isolated in the extreme south, continued towards increasingly frigidity. The climate still supported vast tracts of lush greenery, but now there was a distinct hint of drier times to come in many parts of the world. Here, the forests were giving way to savannah woodlands where the recently evolved grasses were playing an increasingly prominent role. In many ways, the dinosaur fauna of the Oligocene was the most bizarre of the entire Cenozoic. It was a world that mixed the last survivors of relict clades with early representatives of familiar present-day families. Many of the oldtimers were giants including the Asian lambeosaur Sauropodimimus and the South American sauropod Acrotitan. However, these old survivors were outnumbered by a host of weird and wonderful newer forms. The Oligocene was the peak of leptoceratopsian diversity, with the clade represented in Eurasia and North America by everything from tiny forest runners to titanic long-necked browsers. Duckbills of all shapes and sizes marched across North America and Africa, although they were not very diverse in Eurasia. Here, the most common ornithopods were the eurolophs, enigmatic creatures with no close living relatives, except for the strek and a few others. Strange herbivores, unrelated to anything elsewhere, also appeared South America and Australia. The carnivores seemed to also get into the spirit of weirdness. Northern tyrannosaurs sported all manner of strange cranial crests, as did the abelisauroids of South America and Africa. In Australia, flightless pterosaurs and a group of ornithopods called rhynchoraptors seized the top predatory niches, breaking the theropod-monopoly for the first time since the Triassic. In terms of family-level diversity, most researchers consider the Late Oligocene to mark the zenith of the Cenozoic dinosaur fauna. As the Oligocene drew to a close and the Miocene began, however, this diversity began to wane. In the oceans and throughout most of the southern landmasses, it was business as usual (aside from unusually high planktonic turnover). However, in a greater part of the northern hemisphere, the dinosaurs were vanishing, losing close to one third of their species diversity. Procurvhadrus specensis Procurvhadrus specensis ''is the best known member of the clade and illustrates most of its kin's salient qualities. The head is large and boxlike, the forelimbs are reduced and the fifth and first digits are lost, leaving the rest to form a hoof-like pad. The hind legs are long and slender, with a pronouncedly digigrade. The most strangest part of this animal's anatomy (and the namesake of the clade), the tail, is long and rodlike, stiffened with a network of ossified tendons to form a balancing appendage quite similar to that of a deinonychosaur. ''Paramegahadrus vetus Paramegahadrinae is an extinct group of North American hadrosaurs that appeared in the middle Oligocene. They were first thought to have been the ancestors of megahadrines, but certain details of their anatomy, most importantly the shape of the head and the shortness of the forelimbs have lead paleontologists to believe they were actually a primitive evolutionary offshoot of Hadrosauroidae. It seems that while megahadrines eventually became grazers of the prairies, paramegahadrines remained in the marshlands and riversides where their common ancestors had evolved. It is still unclear what events exactly lead into their demise. Two of the most noticeable examples being Paramegahadrus vetus and Megabeluasaurus magnacephalus. Megaloceratops gracilis At the height of leptoceratopsid evolution, 'Sauroceratops' (Megaloceratops gracilis) was the largest of the clade. This Oligocene browser has evolved convergent with sauropods and its closer (though still distant) relatives, South America's false-sauropods. 'Sauroceratops' measured 14 meters, but since most of its length was taken up by its long neck and tail, it weighed surprising little for its size, only 6-8 tonnes. The first half of its tail was slender, yet very deep. It was probably brightly colored to attract mates or intimidate rivals. The frill, prominent in other ceratopsians, has been reduced, making it easier for this high-browser to feed. It should be noted that this was originally named "Titanoceratops gracilis", but this was changed in order to not confuse it with the massive chasmosaurine which was discovered back in 2011. Errosaurus borealis As seen in the picture above is a reconstruction of Errosaurus borealis, an Oligocene species unearthed in western Canada. E. borealis is the earliest known North American errosaurid. The presence of this dinosaur on the North American continent reveals how quickly clade Errosauridae spread from its origins in Eocene Eurasia. Bavarionyx cursor The eurolophs (order Eurolophia) appeared suddenly in Europe, fully diversified into a number of distinct forms, about 30 million years ago, ruled the continent through the Oligocene, and then disappeared at the end of the Pliocene. Although eurolophs are clearly ornithopods of some kind or other, the eurolophs do not fit in with any other branch of this tree. Their cranial anatomy is advanced, with a long muzzle and three rows of cheek teeth to form a "dental battery" like that of a hadrosaur. However, the jugals (cheek bones) tend to be pronounced, as in the basal ornithopods like Heterodontosaurus, and the ossified tendons that stiffened the tails and spines of every ornithopod since the Jurassic are completely absent. As of today, the larger species of Euroloph are long gone, however, smaller species of the Euroloph, most notable the struthiopods (which not to be confused with the jackalopes) stil survive to this very day. From Oligocene Europe, Bavarionyx cursor is the earliest relatively complete euroloph yet discovered. This creature is supposed to be an early rhinolophosaur, but shares some features (including its bipedal stance) with the struthiopods. Such a "missing link" may support a european origin for the eurolophs, but the evidence is still fragmentary. This is one of the most controversial fossils found in the world of Spec. Bavarionyx cursor, ''a bizarre bipedal species of Eurolope that went extinct before the start of the Miocene epoch. ''Bellasaurus leidyi Of the three great hadrosaur groups of the Oligocene, the hipposauridae, not to be confused with modern day hipposaurinaes of the neohadrosauria which inhabit the Americas and Eurasia, were undoubtedly the most diverse and arguably the most successful. While the paramegahadrines were giants and the megacaudisaurids were probably more numerous, hipposauridae occupied a much wider range of forms, from tiny, hoglike browsers to giant grazers rather like modern hmungos. One such example being Bellasaurus leidyi. Like the megacaudine hadrosaurs, hipposauridaes retained only the middle three digits of their forelimbs, but these sported large nails that probably extended past the hoof-pad. Most sported enlarged neural crests over the shoulders to anchor powerful grazers' neck muscles, and many later species possessed a very deep lower jaw, perhaps to aid in cropping early grasses. Hipposauridae tails tended to be rather narrow and stubby, possibly because their function as balancing devises were irrelevant to the quadripedal herbivores. Pygmihadrus mirus Hipposaurs, not to be confused with the modern probably evolved some time during the Eocene, but their fossil record begins in the early Oligocene with such genera as Pygmihadrus, a meter-long herbivore with short, stumpy legs and tail. Fossils similar to this one appear throughout the Oligocene and Miocene. Gryphorhynchus robustus New fossils unearthed from Late Oligocene deposits at Spec-Riversleigh have proven Gryphorynchus, once thought to have been the first rhynchoraptoran predator, to be something else instead. Until now Gryphorhynchus was known from an incomplete skull and some fragmentary limb and pelvic material. Based on the fossils scientists had reconstructed the animal as a sleek and swift predator not unlike the smallest modern rhynchoraptors. It was thought to be closely related to the common ancestor of rhynchoraptors. The newly found Gryphorhynchus skeleton, nicknamed "Greg", has proven these reconstructions flawed. The new animal that belongs to a new species, Gryphorhynchus robustus, that was clearly closely related to the earlier fossils. In fact it is possible that the bones found earlier belonged to a juvenile G. robustus. "In life Greg was a big and bulky beast and probably not much of a runner. It's more likely that he was an omnivorous scavenger," said Specpaleontologist Kim Xu, who was involved in the excavation of the animal. Though the otherwise nearly complete skeleton is missing nearly all of the tail, it has become clear that Gryphorynchus was too different from Rhynchoraptors to be a closely related to them. "It likely now that the antarctornithopods that gave rise to rhynchoraptors experimented with omnivory and maybe even carnivory several times," Xu said. "This means the earliest rhynchoraptoran remains are now from the Miocene," said professor Brian Choo, who has been studying fossil rhynchoraptors for years. "But that doesn't necessarily mean they aren't there. We just haven't found them yet," he added. From 'Spexploration Weekly, November 2003 Issue. '- Brian Choo and Daniel Bensen Gryphorhynchus aenigmaticus Gryphorhynchus aenigmaticus ''is an early rhynchoraptoran, though appearing much later after ''Gryphorhynchus robusuts, known from a nearly complete skull and fragmentary limb material. It has been suggested that this species was a scavenger, but other paleontologists postulate a lifestyle of active hunting. This is a rather controversial specimen given the information that was gathered about extinct rhynchoraptor back in 2003. More research should settle this issue some time in the near future. Undescribed Insect-Eating Therizinosaur Early paleontologists excivating in Spec's eastern Eurasiawere quite surprised to discover the scattered remains of what appeared to be a group of tiny, ant-eating therizinosaurs, with elongated tubular snouts and large digging claws. These fossils were dubbed "microsegnosaurids" and were present in the literature for years before the more detailed examination of the fossils proved that these bizzare therizinosaurs were too bizarre to be real. Microsegnosauridae, a group of small, insectivorous maniraptors was one of the stranger radiations of Therizinosauria. Evolving in the Oligocene, migrosegnosaurids became quite common during the Miocene and Pliocene, when they spread across Eurasia. The obvious explanation for these adaptations is that these dinosaurs were ant-eaters, although exactly why ants were so tempting as a food source that the therizinosaurs could completely abandon their former lifestyle and favor of their consumption is unknown. Scientists have debated the validity of the Microsegnosaurs due to some recent fossil discoveries in Eurasia which place the validity of this group of therizinosaurs in to question. This is mostly due to that some of these fossils turned out to be a jumbled mess of unknown of indeterminate therizinosaur remains and alvarezasaur remains. As of now, only a few species are considered to be valid, but even then this recent research could potentially make them dubious. Formicornithoides europeanus The early Oligocene microsegnosaurid Formicornithoides europeanus is the first known species of myrmicophagous therizinosaurs. When the fragmentary skull and limb material the species is known from was first discovered, it couldn't be indisputably identified as a therizinosaurid. It wasn't before the discovery of Microsegnosaurus myrmicophagus that the animal could be properly classified. Several well-preserved skeletons show small, lightly-built creatures with long, tubular snouts and powerful forelimbs. The retroverted pubis of the therizinosaurs was, with the microsegnosaurs, greatly reduced and pulled forward, like that of a basal coelurosaur, while the legs were reletively long and slender. EXTINCTION AT SPEC'S OLIGOCENE/MIOCENE TRANSITION (c. 24,000,000 - 23,000,000 b.p.) The solar system is a messy place, littered with rocky and icy leftovers from its coalescence. The Earth suffers chronic encounters with these wanderers, and while most are too small to be of much consequence, a few, like the monster of RL's K-T, leave their scar upon both the face of the planet and the creatures that dwell upon it. At the very end of the Oligocene, such an event seems to have occurred. Close to 23 million years ago, a great flaming rock fell from the sky. It slammed into the arctic and left a steaming crater 20 km across. It was not the largest object to have crossed Earth's path, nor was the impact the only one of its time. But for life on Earth, the rock had found the worst possible place to crash into. The area surrounding the impact was undoubtedly devastated immediately. Thick clouds of ejecta in the air would have stalled photosynthesis across much of the Northern Hemisphere, breaking down food chains across North America and Eurasia and leading to the starvation of millions of animals. As devastating as this catastrophe must have been, the scorching of the sky was not the most serious consequence of the collision. The blast of the impact had, after vaporizing the surface sediments, encountered bedrock rich in anhydrite (calcium sulphate) and various carbonates. Great quantities of this material, some from over 1.7 km deep within the Earth, was thrown into the atmosphere where it lead to an increase in greenhouse gases and deadly falls of acid rain. For the most part, the Southern Hemisphere seemed to escape any serious damage, although the last of South America's sauropods vanished at this time. Throughout North America and Eurasia, however, the dinosaurs were in peril. In North American fossil-bearing deposits produced at that time, one often finds as few as two or three dinosaur species where once there were over twenty. On the whole, larger dinosaurs were more seriously affected than smaller ones. The last of the giant lambeosaurs along with most of the larger ceratopsians, eurolophs and neohadrosaurs vanished. Tyrannosaurs survived as a group, but lost many of their more bizarre members. The survivors were the errosaurs---small and generalised like the early cenoceratopsians and megahadrids. Without competition, these little predators quickly spread and proliferated in the Early Miocene. On both Spec and, RL the eroded scar of the 23 million year-old impact, known as the Haughton crater, sits in the high arctic of North America (75°22'N, 89°41'W). The effects of the impact on RL's Cenozoic biosphere is still being investigated and it has been implicated in a number of regional extinctions. What is certain however, is that no megafaunal extinction event of the magnitude of Spec's decimated northern dinosaur faunas occurred in our native timeline. Why this would be the case when all physical aspects of the impact appear identical on both worlds is one of many issues under scientific scrutiny. One possibility concerns the lack of insulatory structures (such as fur or feathers) on most herbivorous dinosaurs. This may have made them more sensitive to such a sudden large-scale climate change compared to their mammalian RL counterparts. SPEC'S MIOCENE EPOCH (c.24,000,000 - 5,000,000 b.p.) The longest epoch of the Cenozoic bore witness to great changes in the geography and biota of the planet. As the wandering landmass of India finally collided with the Asian mainland, an event which spawned the highest mountains in the world, the Americas pushed westwards against the Pacific Plate, creating up the Rockies and the Andes. As Africa drew ever closer to Europe, it sounded the death knell for the ancient Tethys Sea. Cut off from neighbouring oceans, this once great ocean quickly evaporated into a vast dry salt-encrusted basin. While the Atlantic ultimately broke through the straights of Gibraltar and gave rise to the Mediterranean, the land link between Africa and Eurasia was to remain unbroken to the present day. Vegetation on the land was lush and vibrant. Dense forests thrived across the globe. As more water was trapped at the poles,however, open grasslands and savannah spread rapidly, bringing about the evolution of some new clades while restricting and decimating others. For life in the northern hemisphere, it was time of tremendous inter-continental migration and expansion. Africa, Eurasia, and North America were united, allowing free passage to wandering dinosaurs. At the start of the Miocene, the dominant Eurasian herbivores were the few euroloph families that had survived the Haughton impact. These natives were, however, soon locked in a losing ecological battle against successive waves of invading duckbills from neighbouring continents. Predatory dinosaurs also marched across the land bridges, the scaly African priscataurs rampaged across tropical Asia while Eurasian deinonychosaurs moved into Africa. While Africa and the North experienced a mixing of faunas, the rest of the world was a study in isolation. Australia and South America remained worlds apart from any other landmass, surrounded by oceans on all sides. Both continents were enjoying a boom in ornithopod evolution that gave rise to a host weird endemic forms, from giant pseudosauropods to vicious rhynchoraptors. Australia began to lose much of its ancient rainforests as it charged northwards into drier latitudes. Archaeopristrix stromeri '' ''Archaeopristrix stromeri was the first known "fully modern" mosark and represents the best-preserved example of post-Cretaceous mosasaur diversity. Known from a virtually complete skeleton, Archaeopristrix is surprisingly similar to small mosarks like the sakhala and shows all the major developements that characterize today's lizardwhales, including a bent, fin-supporting tail, reduced hind flippers, and nostrils placed above the eyes. Life in the seas was rich and varied. Giant predatory saurocetes and sharks prowled the tropics. while large swimming birds taking advantage of the rich polar waters. At several points during the Miocene, the the seas experienced sharp drops in temperature, accompanied by an expansion of the Antarctic ice sheet. However, these episodes were not severe enough to trigger anything more that mild, localised extinctions at sea or on land. Tricerolophus chooi Tricerolophus chooi is the first ungulaped hadrosaur known from Europe, dating back to middle Miocene. It may well be the common ancestor, or at least close relative, of many later Eurasian hadrosaurs. Unlike the modern saurolopes of Africa, Tricerolophus had only three horns, but seems to have been a good quadrapedal runner. The three other species of "microsegnosaurid" (all of which based upon scattered elements) proved to be either therizinosaur of alvarezsaur material, lumped together with "microsegnosaurus" because of similarities with one part or another of its patch-work skeleton. Microsegnosaurus mymicophagus Recent studies of "microsegnosaurus", the first-discovered and most complete "microsegnosaurid" discovered proved that what was thought to be a single organism was, in fact, a chimera. The "ant-eating therizinosaur" may have actually been an amalgum of two unrelated organisms, a small therizinosaur possibly related to today's Seculasauridae and an alvarezsaur, the last known from the Eurasian continent. In the midst of this controversy, some work will be done to sort things out. Micronychus polyonyx The three other species of "microsegnosaurid" (all of which based upon scattered elements) proved to be either therizinosaur of alvarezsaur material, lumped together with "microsegnosaurus" because of similarities with one part or another of its patch-work skeleton. Teratodon maturus The Miocene Teratodon maturus is an early rhynchoraptoran megapredator. It isn't exacly clear why this animal became extinct, but competition from the more advanced rynchoraptorans, and the fact that Teratodon seems not to have been much of a runner may have played a part in it's demise. Several Teratodon skeletons have been found, including a mummified specimen show a row of sturmtiger-like spines on this animal's back run down to the base of the tail, which has gained Teratodon the nickname "sabertooth sturmtiger". Wabulasaurus archeri Ozpec's Riversleigh deposits (in northeastern Queensland) have produced the remains of a wide variety of fossil euclasaurs. The 5-million-year-old Wabulasaurus archeri is one the largest and most striking of these specimens. This 2-tonne animal appears to have been an early offshoot of the line leading to the living hexacorns. While generally similar to its modern-day relative, Wabulasaurus differed in the configuration of horns, its narrow beak, and the presence of large ceratopsian-like jugal processes. The postcranial skeleton is imperfectly known but appears to have been more gracile than the modern hexacorn. Eomucrodontosaurus srnkai Reconstruction of Eomucrodontosaurus srnkai, an early product of the albesaurid radiation that produced the Mucrodontosaurus ''of today. Unlike the modern day ''Murcodontosaurus, this species doesn't appear to be as semi-aquatic as its modern day relative. Mirificranium coronatus Both on HE and Spec the continent of Australia is known to host archaic, surprising and just plain weird forms of life. But to uncover some of the most perplexing creatures, you have to dig deep, as a group of specpaleontologists discovered. While hoping to uncover the ancestor of the rhynchoraptorans, they uncovered a startling specimen that didn't seem to make sense at all: a partial skull with fragmentary postrcania that looked like it could have belonged to a strange pachycephalosaur with a crown of spikes and two prominent fangs. The animal was named Mirificranium coronatus, meaning confusing crowned skull. Such a find was hard swallow for several reasons. First of all, there were no known pachycephalosaur remains found in Australia prior to this, and secondly the age seemed too far removed from the last known Specworld pachycephalosaurs. Mirificranium ''could be dated to the Ogliocene with reasonable accuracy, while the last of the pachycephalosaurs were supposed to have become extinct early Eocene. An ulna is known from HE Australia that has been tentatively assigned to a neoceratopsian (possibly ''Leptoceratops), which has lead to some speculation that neoceratopsians may be of Gondwanan origin. Mirificranium coronatus was however the first ceratopsian to show up in the Australian fossil record, so if there is any connection between it and the Early Cretaceous ulna, there remains a question about where the Australian ceratopians were hiding all this time. The Mirificranium postcrania also hints that the body of the animal was probably not that of the typical neoceratopsian, but rather like that of the more basal ceratopians. If a recently discovered partial postcrania from Early Miocene turns out to belong to Stegocephalosaurus, ''then the stegocephalosaurs were most likely at least habitual bipeds. ''Stegocephalosaurus baiamei The tale got another twist when another, more complete skull was found from early Miocene deposits. This animal, Stegocephalosaurus baiamei ''(meaning creator god Baiame's roofheaded reptile) had a less flamboyant skull covered by a flat bony pad. Though there were enough similarities in the skull morphology to classify the animal as a marginocephalian, it didn't seem to belong to a pachycephalosaur after all. Instead it had a lot in common with the most basal ceratopsians! There is still much more we don't know about stegocephalosaurs. We can only guess that they used their bony heads in intraspecific combat as pachycephalosaurs may have done in their time, but the purpose of the fangs is unclear. Another unanswered question is their fate. While they seem so rare in the fossil record that it is too early to make assumptions about when exactly they disappeared, they did not make it to the holocene. Their extinction is indeed a great shame, as from live stegocephalosaurs we might have learned a great deal about the evolution of marginocephalians both in our world as in spec. ''Rhinolophosaurus aumalai If paleontology serves a purpose, it is to remind us, again and again, that the current breadth of life on Earth is but a meager fraction of its former diversity. We have all, by now, become accustomed to the fleet-footed yales, the lumbering hmungos, the sumo-esque therizinosaurs, but as little as two million years ago there existed a group of herbivores completely unlike any seen today. The massive rhinolophosaurs of the Oligocene and Miocene were the largest of their breed, strongly convergent with hadrosaurian ungulapeds. Indeed, rhinolophosaur material in France was first mistaken for very early ungulaped remains but the first complete rhinolophosaur skeleton, christened Rhinolophosaurus aumalai, was obviously not a hadrosaurian, and so the older finds, under scrutiny, turned out to be of the same stock. While the head of Rhinolophosaurus is indeed rather similar to a hadrosaur, with its battery of chewing teeth and bulbous nose, the rest of the body is not. The legs are short compared to the torso, and the neural spines over the shoulders are enlarged, traits found only in the truly huge hadrosaurs like hmungos and brutons. With such legs and spines, rhinolophs could only have been plodding, graviportal grazers, the earliest known in Eurasia. The tail, which in hadrosaurs counterbalances the body, is, as with all known rhinolophosaurs, devoid of stiffening tendons. During their time, the rhinolophosaurs were the most successful herbivores in Eurasia, overshadowing the more familiar ceratopsians and hadrosaurs for the duration of the Oligocene epoch. The Haughton impact that began the Miocene took a heavy toll on the eurolophs, drastically reducing rhinolophosaur diversity and outright killing several other euroloph clades (about which very little is known). The rhinolophosaurs came back as strong as ever in the Miocene, producing such forms as the famous Rhinolophosaurus, still the most complete rhinolophosaur material found to date. Rhinolophosaurus '' and its kin continued quite happily up to the end of the Miocene, but the climatic changes of the Pliocene, coupled with the influx of African ungulapeds from the south spelt doom for the rhinolophosaurs as was the case with the larger Eurolophs. ''Styrhinosaurus acutus A recently discovered fossil from Spain revealed that some of the Rhinolophosaurs started to fulfill the niche of the larger ceratopsians which were long gone in the area, though some controversial fossils state other wise. In the case of Styrhinosaurus acutus, this species is something of an enigma, but we can only speculate about its behaviors were. However, what is known is that the male species of Styrhinosaurus would've used them for combat during the mating season and possible predators or possibly as a method of impressing a mate. Research has also revealed that this small horns were made up of keratin, some even believing they grew larger than what is currently found in the fossil record. As of now, not much is known about Styrhinosaurus ''or how it went extinct, but more research will be conducted in the future. SPEC'S PLIOCENE EPOCH (c.5,000,000 - 1,700,000 b.p.) The geography of the Pliocene Specworld looked quite similar to the present-day map. As North and South Ameirca finally met, the isthmus of Panama rose from the sea, separating the tropical Atlantic from the Pacific and ending South America's long isolation. The Mediterranean was fully formed, but was barred from the Indian Ocean by the Sinai peninsula, which joined Africa and Eurasia. A permanent polar icecap had started to form at the Arctic, shifting the warm Gulf Stream as cool currents flowed down the Labradore coast. Temperatures on land and in the sea continued to cool. Many kinds of marine invertebrates vanished, unable to adapt to the changing temperatures, but were quickly replaced by more modern forms. The productive cool waters at the poles soon played host to a crowd of newly evolved animals taking advantage of their expanded habitat. Swimming birds radiated further and grew increasingly large. Enormous filter-feeding cephalopods harvested the clouds of krill. In warmer waters, new species of lizard-whales terrorised the oceans. On land, the vegetation was shifting in response to these cooler, drier conditions. While trees still dominated the uplands, in the mid-continental belts, they were giving way to open grasslands. Low-lying areas once covered in green forests and woodlands were now transformed into endless seas of golden grass. The rise of the grasslands lead to the loss of many ancient browsing herbivores. The armoured ankylosaurs, already uncommon since the Oligocene, declined to a handful of species in America and Australia. Most of the last of the eurolophs were gone, minus a few species who escaped the wrath of extinction, while only a single genus of high-browsing sauropod remained in Africa. As some groups faded with the vanishing forests others rose to meet the evolutionary challenge. Throughout Africa and Asia, vast of herds of hoofed ungulapedes were on the march, these weird duckbills soon radiated into an incredible variety of forms. Cooler northern latitudes witnessed herbivorous niches becoming increasingly dominated by two of the most unlikely of candidates - the therizinosaurian theropods and the paraselenodont mammals. In North America, the neohadrosaur duckbills continued their monopoly of the large herbivore guilds. Also making their presence felt were the frill-necked ceratopsians. These dinosaurs had been absent from North America since the end of the Oligocene and their recent arrival from Asia heralded the return of giant horned herds to the continent. Biogeographically, the most important event of the Pliocene was the linking of the two Americas. Much of the unique South American megafauna vanished in the face of North American immigrants. The northern dinosaurs had dealt with climatic change and faunal interchange with Asia throughout the Cenozoic, thus were full of competitive vigour. Their southern counterparts, on the other hand, have lived on a more stable, isolated world for millions of years and in most cases fare poorly against the invaders. Soon, duckbills and ceratopsians had displaced many unique South American ornithopod families, while tyrannosaurs and hesperonychids had replaced the abelisaurs and endemic notoraptors, minus a few exceptions. Of the large southern herbivores, only the giant pseudosauropods held their own. However, the migrations were not one-way, as neotropical viriosaurs and marsupials flourished in the north. The only major landmasses still completely isolated were Antarctica and Australia. The former was now virtually lifeless, but the latter boasted a staggering display of weird endemics. The thick forests that once covered most of the island continent were now restricted to the margins, giving way to open woodlands and savannah. One lineage of herbivores, the euclasaurs, had undergone an explosive evolutionary radiation akin to that of the Old World ungulapedes. Hunting these odd herbivores were their predatory rhynchoraptor cousins. ''Ayleeia breviops Ayleeia breviops is an extinct North American ceratopid. Though this animal lived in the Pliocene, it was surprisingly primitive, being very similiar to Late Cretaceous leptoceratopids. It lacked brow or nose horns, but seems to have had some kind of horny bumps on its neck frill. A recently discovered mummified specimen has revealed an interesting detail about its diet: much of its the stomach contents were made up of what seems to have been tree bark chewed up twigs and branches. How Ayleeia managed to digest such food is still unknown - or perhaps the individual in question was just starving and desperate enough to eat anything. Projugalceratops problematicus '' 2.5 million year-old ''Projugalceratops problematicus, unearthed in Spec's Florida, is the only is the only jugalceratopsine fossil yet found. This generalized herbivore was quite similar to Cretaceous Protoceratops and the present-day dawnhorn of Asia, but its affinities to other jugalceratopsines are uncertain. Most paleontologists had assumed the jugalceratopsines evolved from a dinoceratops -like ancestor, but the generalized Projugalceratops ''is more similar to Cretaceous ''Protoceratops and the present-day dawnhorn of Asia than to any dinoceratopsine. To further complicate matters, this North American fossil bears a very strong resemblance to the poorly-understood Frill-tusker of the Amazon. Perhaps the frill-tusker and Projugalceratops''form a group ancestral to all other jugalceratopsines, but more specimens must be studied to determine whether the species' similarities are phylogenic or merely convergent. ''Mokelesaurus gargouille Though in the Holocene mokelesaurs (excluding the dwarf forms on isolated islands) have been restricted to the continent of Africa, they were once found in large parts of Europe and western Asia. The first mokelesaurs migrated to Europe with their terrestial titanosaur cousins in the Miocene, but these first forms show less adaptations to aquatic lifestyle than modern mokeles. In the Pliocene European waterways were dominated by the now-extinct species, Mokelesaurus gargouille, which, before the ice ages, ranged from the British isles to the Persian gulf . It was little different from the modern Nile mokele except for its larger size. The largest known M.gargouille skeleton, found in southern France, indicates the species could reach the length of 16 meters. It is yet unknown whether M. gargouille ''evolved in Europe or in Africa, but it seems to have given rise to the Mediterranean minimokeles (''Minimokelesaurus insularis). Megabeluasaurus magnacephalus Megabeluasaurus magnacephalus was the largest and one of the last paramegahadrine species, even though it never surpassed the elephantine hmungos in size. The first Megabeluasaurus remains found consisted of a nearly intact skull but very little postcranial material. Based on the enormous size of the skull, the animal was first reconstructed as an enormous hmungo-like grazer. Later finds revealed that the skull of Megabeluasaurus was actually very large in proportion to the rest of its body. The dinosaur seems to have been a dweller of the wetlands whose diet consisted mostly of aquatic plants very much like its cousin, the modern sludger. Carnofalx bestialis '' ''Carnofalx bestialis was first thought to be one of the last and largest surviving members of therizinonychosaurs in the Pliocene. It turns out it was actually an oviraptorosaur. This heavily built animal was probably mainly a scavenger, but may have been partly omnivorous as well. Ceratociraphus pervulgatus Ceratociraphus pervulgatus is an Pliocene ungulapede browser whose remains have been found in northern Africa, the middle east and India. Originally it was tentatively classified as an offshoot of Formosicornidae, but a more detailed analysis has revealed this animal to be a ciraphadrid. The unusual horn arrangements of Ceratociraphus may give an insight to how the horns of their formosicornid (and ultracornid) relatives may have evolved, although those of Ceratociraphus were blunt and massive, probably used in pusing or butting contests beteween males. Hipposaurus grandis The last of the hipposaurs was the mighty Hipposaurus, a ten-meter-long monster with powerful limbs and a bizzare skull. The head of Hipposaurus ''was deep, but very narrow until half-way down the snout, when the beak flared out into a spatula shape. Meanwhile, the lower jaw curves upward as it flares, forming a cutting edge with the upper mandible. The jaw is thus constructed in such a way that the dinosaur could only have been able to feed by holding its head perpendicular to the ground and dragging its beak along the turf like a giant spoon. Most paleontologists agree that these strange features were an adaptation for grazing upon early grasses.As the Oligocene gave way to the Miocene, hipposaur diversity began to wane. By the Pliocene only the large and specialized ''Hipposaurus remained until it, too, succumbed to the changing climate and competition from other herbivores most notably the kritosaurs, stellosaurs, and neohadrosaurs who had arrived from North America. A possible name change to "Hippohadrus grandis" has been proposed in order to not confuse it with the small therapsid which lived during the Permian period. Pentacerolophus progenitor Pentacerolophus is an extinct genus that fits between ealines and catoblepids. This large grazer lived in Asia Minor where it evolved, and southern Europe from late Miocene to Middle Pliocene. Its appearance coincides with the beginning of the rhinolophosaurs' decline. Pentacerolophus primigenitus, the earliest known Pentacerolophus ''species from the late Miocene, was not much larger than modern ealines, but the heavily built ''Pentacerolophus ingens was nearly twice the size of a yale. Pentacerolophus disappears soon after the extinction of Rhinolophosaurus aumalai, apparently replaced by its progeny: the larger and more robust Catoblepas ''species and its close relatives. Pictured here is ''Pentacerolophus progenitor. SPEC'S QUATERNARY PERIOD (c.1,700,000 - 0 b.p.) A little less than 2 million years ago, the Earth entered what can only be described as a climatic rollercoaster, a time which marked the end of the Neogene Period and the start of the Quaternary Period. Thus began a series of drastic cooling phases for the planet, the famous Ice Ages. In RL, the Quaternary is divided into two epochs - the Pleistocene and the Holocene (the time from the last glaciation up until the present day). Although these units are sometimes used on Spec for purposes of convenience, it should be noted that: * a) the biotic changes that have characterised the Holocene on RL are far less profound on Spec (see below) * b) evidence collected on both worlds suggests that this current phase of mild climate is little more than a short interglacial period and that the Specworld is heading towards yet another round of glaciation. On RL the activities of industrialised humanity appears to be reversing this situation. From about 1.7 million to 11,000 years ago, the world experienced at least four major glacial episodes. Great sheets of ice spread out from the Arctic, covering much of North America and Europe. Increased glaciation also occured in the southern hemisphere although to a much lesser extent. At its peak, about 44 million sq km of the planet's surface was ice-bound. With so much water locked away, sea-levels fell by over 100 metres, resulting in the devastation of local marine faunas and the creation of several land-bridges, including those across the Bering Strait, the English Channel, the Torres Strait, and the Sea of Japan. After a time, the ice would retreat and the world would be given the brief respite of an interglacial that saw the return of milder conditions. The effect of the Ice Ages, both on the landscape and the creatures that inhabited it, was profound. The flow of the glaciers carved great valleys in the Earth, while accumulating boulder clays and moraines. Strongs winds near the ice sheets carried fine-grained dust to distant lands, resulting in thick loess deposits in Africa, central Asia, and midwestern North America. With regards to the vegetation, the coming of the Ice Age heralded the arrival of vast areas tundra in the north, providing a rich feeding ground for cold-adapted grazers, such as polar therizinosaurs and large paraselenodont mammals. In the lower latitudes, some areas acquired lush woodlands while others faced increasing aridity. When the ice retreated, temperate forests returned to the high-latitudes, accompanied by herds of hadrosaurs. Each phase of glaciation and interglacial proved to be of benefit to some organsisms at the expense of others. The ranges of some animals expanded while other were reduced to scattered populations only to have the situation reversed when the extent of the ice shifted. In all physical aspects, the progression of the Ice Ages of Spec appears to have been identical to that of RL. However, with regards to life on the planet, there is one startling contrast. The conclusion of the last Ice Age on RL broadly coincided with the extinction of many large terrestrial animals - mammoths, giant deer, ground sloths, sabre-tooth cats, etc. As far as can be determined, such a phenomenon did not occur on Spec. 11,000 years ago, the ranges of many tundra-dwelling dinosaurs, such as the arctotitan, were certainly greatly reduced, often accompanied by a reduction in body-size. Some areas also experienced localised extinctions, particularly North America, which lost its ceratopsians as great areas of woodland were converted to open praries. Though some have thrived in areas of woodland and colder climates, like the centrosaurs. But on the whole, probably over 90% of all of Specworld's Ice Age megafaunal genera are still alive and well. This evidence points the finger of blame firmly at humanity for the extinction of the great beasts of our own home time-line. Spec, never subjected to the curse of the killer ape, remains the abode of giants. Macropokemus robustus Macropokemus robustus, the "giant chilla" is known only from a few fragments of fossilized bone uncovered from Pleistocene deposits in Spec's China. These fossils suggest a very large creature, perhaps two meters in length, with a set of powerful, carnivorous-looking teeth. While modern chillas are quite harmless, this Ice Age mammal must have been a terror. Smilotyrannus horridus Smilotyrannus horridus evolved to hunt the giant therizinosaurs and the species of arctic centrosaurs during the last ice age, and grew up to 13 m long. It evolved huge "canine" teeth to bite through the thick plumage and fat of the Arctotitans and Woolly Ceratops. Dinofuzz covered most of it's body, including the toes. EXAMPLES OF THE EXTINCT FAUNA BASED ON THEIR RESPECTIVE TIME PERIOD Cretaceous # Gigantala cranitus ''(Pterosaur) # Gigantala hastarostris (Pterosaur) # ''Baropecudis cornufrons ''(Pachycephalosaur) # Spinocephalus superstes (Pachycephalosaur) # ''Parasaurolophus palaeocaenicus ''(Hadrosaur) # ''Antarctoptera hyperion ''(Pterosaur) Paleocene # ''Anserodromeus antiquus (Ungulaped) # Helioraptor kaamos (Dromaeosaur) # Archeotyrannus kaamos (Tyrannosaur) Eocene # Saltotyrannus nanus (Tyrannosaur) # Protokagru aegyptiacum (Noasaur) # Eomantarx termieri ''(Ankylosaur) # ''Eohadrus excelsius ''(Hadrosaur) # ''Megacaudia nameni ''(Hadrosaur) # ''Brontoceratops robustus ''(Ceratopsian) # ''Gigantops dominus ''(Ceratopsian) # ''Paraxenoceratops oplos (Ceratopsian) # Eobrachiceratops antiquus ''(Ceratopsian) # ''Patriopokemus mordax ''(Pokemurid) # ''Phobotyrannus robustus ''(Tyrannosaur) # ''Balaenanguis primitivus ''(Mosasaur) # ''Arbroraptor mongoliensis ''(Dromaeosaur) # ''Spinotitan grandis ''(Sauropod) # ''Titanotarsus steveirwini ''(Sauropod) # ''Pisciraptor nauticus ''(Spinosaur) # ''Massosuchus europensis ''(Spinosaur) # ''Carnosuchus tarbos ''(Spinosaur) # ''Afrosauravis gracilis (Ornithomimid?) # Rheamimus leptocauda (Ornithomimid?) # Mehenotornis sternbergi (Ornithomimid?) # Tarwii tarwii (Ornithomimid?) # Struthiarctos robustus (Ornithomimid?) # Struthiarctos africanus (Ornithomimid?) # Errosaurus borealis ''(Tyrannosaur) # ''Lycovenator paraxenos (Dromaeosaur) Oligocene # Protomoloch bonapartei (Abelisaur) # Bavarionyx cursor ''(Eurolophia) # ''Sauropodimimus giganticus ''(Hadrosaur) # ''Gryphorynchys robustus ''(Rhynchoraptor) # ''Paramegahadrus vetus ''(Hadrosaur) # ''Procurvihadrus specensis ''(Hadrosaur) # ''Megaloceratops gracilis ''(Cereatopsian) # ''Arcotitian poseidonorum ''(Titanosaur) # Aetiogenoi eletherios (Pterosaur) # ''Formicornithoides europeanus (Microsegnosaur) # Pygmihadrus mirus ''(Hipposaur) # ''Bellasaurus leidyi ''(Hipposaur) Miocene # ''Archaeopristrix stromeri ''(Mosasaur) # ''Gryphorynchys aenigmaticus ''(Rhynchoraptor) # ''Tricerolophus chooi ''(Ungulaped) # ''Teratodon maturus ''(Rhynchoraptor) # ''Mirificranium coronatus ''(Stegocephalosaur) # ''Stegocephalosaurus baiamei ''(Stegocephalosaur) # ''Pikodon maximus ''(Torvodont) # ''Micronychus polyonyx ''(Microsegnosaur) # ''Microsegnosaurus myrmicophagus ''(Microsegnosaur) # ''Eomucrodontosaurus srnkai ''(Noasaur) # ''Taurosaurus gracilis ''(Ceratopsian) # ''Megataurosaurus indica ''(Ceratopsian) # ''Orgetorix ozymandias (Tyrannosaur) # Trooraptor negris (Rhynchoraptor) # Therizinonychus polynyx (Therizinosauria) # Pentacerolophus progenitor ''(Ungulaped) # ''Wabulasaurus archeri (Euclasauria) Pliocene # Rhynchoraptor robustus (Rhynchoraptor) # Ayleeia breviops ''(Dinoceratopsian) # ''Carnofalx bestialis ''(Oviraptorosaur) # ''Rhinolophosaurus aumalai ''(Rhinolophosaur) # ''Megabeluasaurus magnacephalus ''(Hadrosaur) # ''Projugalceratops problematicus ''(Dinoceratopsian) # ''Ceratociraphus pervulgatus ''(Ungulaped) # ''Pentacerolophus ingens (Ungulaped) # Pentacerolophus primigenitu''s (Ungulaped) # ''Neotitanosaurus uralensis ''(Titanosaur) # ''Mokelesaurus gargouille ''(Titanosaur) # ''Hipposaurus grandis ''(Hipposaur) # ''Probactyrannus gracilis (Tyrannosaur) # Rhinocerocristatus giganteus (Pterosaur) Plestiocene # Macropokemus robustus ''(Pokemurid) # ''Monoceratops acutus (Cenoceratopsian) # ''Neotitanosaurus ultramaximus ''(Titanosaur) # ''Neotitanosaurus dispar ''(Titanosaur) # ''Smilotyrannus horridus ''(Tyrannosaur) # ''Smilotyrannus silvensis ''(Tyrannosaur) # ''Tetraketos moorei ''(Plesiosaur) Category:Spec Dinosauria Category:Extinct Category:Asia Category:North America Category:Australia Category:South America Category:Europe Category:Africa Category:Pachycephalosaurs Category:Mammals Category:Hadrosauroids Category:Ceratopsians Category:Tyrannosaurs Category:Theropods Category:Ornithopods